And krahcis mead



l A. s. Dumas AND F. MEAD.

CUSHIONED'WHEEL.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 3. 1916.

1,307,809. Patented June 24, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

A. S. DUFFIES AND F. MEAD.

CUSHIONED WHEEL.

APPLlCATlON FILED MAY 3. 19l6.

1 307,809 Patented June 24, 1919.

ALFRED S. DUFFIES, F MARKESAN,

WISCONSIN, AND FRANCIS MEAD, OF CHICAGO,

ILLINOIS.

GUSI-IIONED WHEEL.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented 11116 24:, 1919.

application filed May 3, 1916. Serial No. 95,111.

I '0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALFRED S. Dorrms, residing at Markesan, 1n the county of Green Lake and State of Wisconsin, and

inward of the outer elly,

FRANCIS MEAD, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, both citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in. Cushioned Wheels; and we do hereby declare the following to be a'full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention relatesto resilient or cushioned vehicle wheels and more particularly to the generalclass of wheels in which inner and outer fellies or rims are separated by cushioning elements disposed in annular formation between the said fellies or rims. In wheels of this class (such as those shown in our eo-pending application, filed March 31st, 1916, as Serial No. 87,902, or that shown in United States Patent No. 1,195,37 9,

issued to Francis Mead on Aug. 22, 1916) it has heretofore been customary to employ cushions of rubber. or the like projecting laterally beyond the two sides of the inner felly, and to equip the outer felly with annular side flanges extending alongside these projecting portions of the cushions radially inward from the outer felly. When wheels equipped in this manner are in serv ice, the side strains due to skidding, twisting action when turning corners, and other causes, often cause a relative lateral movement of the lnner and outer fellies, thereby placing a considerable strain on the side flanges. In practice, we have found that when the side flanges are supported only by bolts passing through the outer felly of the wheel, this strain comes on laterally unsupported portions of the side flanges. Consequently, such a strain will tendto bend the side flanges out of shape if the latter are made of relatively light material; or, if the flanges are of sufficiently heavy material to resist a strain tending to bend them, this strain will tend to shear off the nuts and heads. of the bolts which fasten the flanges to the outer felly.

The general objects of our invention are to overcome these flange-bending and bolthead-shearing tendencies by providing auxiliary supporting or s acing means radially thereby preventlng arelative lateral movement of the two sideflanges and affording the desired rigidity of the latter without. resorting to the use of heavy material. More particularly, our invention also aims to provide flangespacing. means which may be used with the constructions shown in the aforesaid copending applications without interfering either with the normal action of the cushioning arrangement or the easy assembling of the wheel. Further ob ects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation, partly insection of a vehicle wheel equipped with one embodiment of our invention.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section through the same, taken along the line22 of Fig. l and showing spacer means comprising a bolt and a sheath. i

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary section showing spacer means comprising a rod and two screws.

Fig. 4 similarly shows spacer means comprising a tube and a pair of screws threaded into each other.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section showing our. invention as applied to a wheel conbodiment of our invention in which the spacer elements pass between the spokes of thewheel.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary side elevation of the wheel of Fig. 6.

While our invention may be applied to resilient wheels of widely different types, it is particularly adapted to those using rub- .ber cushions arranged in two annular formations between inner and outer rims and separated by a spacing flange carried by one of the rims. For example, in Fig. 1, the inner rim or felly 1 carries a metal band 2 supporting a centrally disposed spacer band 3 made of steel of an inverted T-shaped cross-section, which band separates parallel cushions 4: of soft rubber or the like.

These cushions project respectively beyond the opposite sides of the inner rim 1 and into contact with side flanges 5 secured to opposite sides of the outer rim 6 by bolts 7 It will be obvious from Fig. 2 that any relative lateral movement of the outer rim toward the right will carry the left-hand side flange .wheel bolts andbearing at both with it and compress the left-hand cushion 4 between this flange and the spacer band 4. Consequently, the resistance of this cushion to the compressing strain will tend to hold back the adjacent portion of the left-hand flange 5, thereby tending both tobend this flange and to shear ofl the head 8 of the bolt 7. To resist these strains, we connect the opposite side flanges by auxiliary spacer means, such as bolts 9 extending parallel to .the axis ofthe wheel through portions of the side flanges disposed between the two rims, and tubes 10 fitted over these ends against the respective flanges 5. The spacer band 4 is then preferably cut away opposite each of these-bolts (as shown in Fig. 1) so as to leave plenty of play for these boltsand tubes gd uring the relative movement of the wheel ably considerably I'lIIlS.

If the side flanges extend radially also alongside parts of the inner rim, as in the construction of our aforesaid copending patent application, the auxiliary spacer means may pass through perforations 11 in the inner rim, which perforations are preferlarger in dlameter than the outside of the spacer means. Thus, in

Fig. 5, the main transverse bolts 7 fasten .two

pairs of superposed side flanges 5 to the outer rim 6, and waterproofed fabrics 13 are clamped between these flanges both by the said bolts and by screws 14 threaded into rods 15, which screws and rods form the auxiliary spacer means of this embodiment of our invention. Likewise, in Figs. 6 and 7, of a single thickness are curved so as to underhang the inner rim or felly 1, and are connected near their radially inner edges by spacer means extendlng be tween the spokes 16 and consistlng of rods 15 ,and screws 14:.

In every case, itwill be obvi0us that by using spacer means including portions between which the sideflanges are clamped (as for example, the bolt head and nutin Fig. 2 and the adjacent ends of the tube 10), we maintain the radially inward portions of the side flanges 5. rigidly spaced, thus preventing a flexing of these flanges and distributing any sidestrains both through the cushioning elements of the wheel and through the said spacer means. Consequently, we are able to secure the desired rigidity and strength with much lighter and less clumsy side flanges than those required where such flanges are held only by their connections to the outer rim 12. Moreover, walls of the transverse perforation 16 in the inner felly of Fig. 5 can, if desired, be used as stops for limiting a relative circumferential motion of the inner and outer wheel rims; or, in Fig. 1, the ends 17 of the annular spacer band 3 can cooperate with the spacer tubes 10 for the same purpose. However, we do not wish to be limited to this feature, nor to other details of the constructions herein described, it being evident that our invention may be embodied in many other forms without departing from the spirit of the appended claims. For example, a pair of screws 14: threaded into opposite ends of a rod 15 (as in Fig. 3) may be substituted for the bolt and the sleeve or tube of Fig. 2; or a pair of threadedly connected screws 18 may replace the single bolt 9, as in Fig. 4.

e claim as our invention:

1. A vehicle wheel including the combination with inner and outer rims and cushioning means interposed therebetween of side anges secured to one of the rims and contacting with the sides of the cushioning means, said flanges being spaced from the other rim to permit relative lateral movement of the rims, and spacing members rigidly connecting opposed portions of the flanges whereby to distribute through both flanges lateral stress applied to either flange.

2. A vehicle wheel including the combination with inner and outer rims and cushioning means interposed therebetween of side flanges secured to one of the rims and contacting with the sides of the cushioning means, and members extending transversely through the cushioning means for rigidly connecting said flanges to distributelateral stresses therein, said spacing members con tinuously contacting with the cushioning means to apply load stress thereto at portions ALFRED s. DUFFIES. FRANCIS MEAD.

.Copies of this patent may bev obtained .for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of. Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

